German ecommerce and fulfilment start-up Hive, which promises D2C merchants it will manage and deliver goods to consumers across Europe, is officially launching in the UK.
The Berlin-headquartered logistics tech company, which was founded in May 2020, will initially partner with fulfilment providers using Hive’s proprietary software and operational processes in addition to its own employees at each partner site – to help UK-based D2C brands ship products to customers in the UK and Europe.
The move, which adds the UK to Hive’s growing European operations, aims to generate 200 UK jobs in the next two years and provide sellers on Shopify, WooCommerce and other ecommerce sites with two-day delivery windows for all European customers.
With more than 156,000 online stores on Shopify alone in the UK – Hive is taking the opportunity to capitalise on a rapidly growing U.K. market, and making it easier for those merchants to sell to customers in Europe, post-Brexit.
Hive said it differs from its competitor, which include Bristol-based Huboo and Parisian startup Bigblue, by giving D2C brands simplified access to customers in Europe. Hive aims to provide end-to-end logistics and fulfilment software to growing D2C brands in addition to running its own fulfilment centres, something the company claims gives it a competitive advantage over competitors that have never had to handle running operations on the ground.
Peter-Paul Brenninkmeijer, VP expansion & general manager for the UK – and one of Hive’s team that has worked picking and packing in its fulfilment centres, said: “As you’d expect in warehouses or fulfilment centres, it’s hard to get a real understanding of how to improve operations if you haven’t had to deal with the realities on the ground. In every case, we’ve done as much as we can to build on our knowledge and experience operating at these sites – and that makes it much easier for us to create solutions that improve it.”
“The information we see from our own centres, for example, means our software is much more reliable at anticipating and managing returns, navigating customs requirements, and negotiating shipping terms on our customer’s behalf.”
With a model that charges brands on a per-order basis, Hive has expanded across Germany, France, Italy and Spain in the past two years, and sees the opportunity to bring European market access and fulfilment to UK businesses.
Find out more about the German ecommerce sector in RetailX’s recently published country report:
- 34 pages of market-leading analysis, research and expert insight into the German ecommerce market
- Research is illustrated throughout with 42 easy-to-read graphs, figures and charts
